Euro Continent vs Euro Isles as curtain-raiser to Bulldogs vs Port

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Euro Continent vs Euro Isles as curtain-raiser to Bulldogs vs Port

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 08:29 am ACST

Have to agree with Aaron there. Having a European Champs final played in front of a few 100 would be far less attractive to the players and do less for promotion than having it at a professional standard ground in front of a growing crowd arriving for an AFL match. It seems obvious in theory and was demonstrated in reality at the last EC tournament... a way to grow these matches to attract big crowds by themselves has not been found.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Euro Continent vs Euro Isles as curtain-raiser to Bulldogs vs Port

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 11:41 am ACST

Pity that the AFL as the 'ruling world body' didn't have the foresight to have Andrew Demetriou (as 'head' of the 'ruling world body') attend the 1st European Championship of Australian Football and to have sent the invitation to Europe's most famous Taswegian to be alongside him to present the Championship Trophy and Best and Fairest Medal.

Promotional mileage from that would have been immeasureable.

IC final as a curtain raiser to an extent does devalue its status as the Premier World Football Tournament. The upside, I agree gives the finalists(players) the chance to play on the MCG in front of a sizeable crowd. I admit I have not attended an IC Final, but I would imagine the atmosphere would be akin to that of the Seconds Grand Final when the finalists are teams that are not the A Grade finalists. Some polite applause???

The only promotional benefit is probably educating the average Melbourne footy follower that Aussie Rules is played outside Australia and that there is a 'best of the rest' competition.

Playing the EC Final as a curtain raiser would also devalue the status of probably the 3rd most important tournament in world footy to that of a side show.

Send a couple of AFL or State League teams to Ireland to play an exhibition match but not on grand final day, good for promoting footy but preserving the status of the EC as the premier European competition/trophy. I would wonder how many of the players who make it thru to the Grand Final and that match is then only a side show would really feel.

These guys are playing for their country, in the sport they believe is the best in the world, in the game that is deciding the best in Europe. Sorry fella's, you're a side show! Good for the the game, really? Hmmm??

Assign the European Championship of Australian Football Final with the 'status' it deserves NOW even tho crowds and bare bones oval as you derogatively put it this year might be crap, they will come and the game will grow. Keep relegating the competitions outside Australia to second rate or sideshow status and that is what footy outside Australia will remain.

Just might remind you guys that the 1st Rugby World Cup was denigrated and scoffed at by many from inside and outside the sport before the event and the crowds were pretty average. RWC is now 3rd after Soccer World Cup and Olympics.

The AFL as the 'ruling world body' must assign greater importance or status to all these world competitions and be seen to be assigning that greater importance if footy is to grow. For instance: I wonder what would transpire over the next few years if Demetriou or Sheeds had presented the medal for Best and Fairest Asian Born Footballer at the recent Asian Championships. Fewer Asian's taking up the sport? I doubt it.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Euro Continent vs Euro Isles as curtain-raiser to Bulldogs vs Port

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, August 20 2012 @ 07:37 am ACST

Hey Cam you're free to speculate about what the players do or don't want but we're just telling you what we've heard direct from players over the years with the International Cup. You could probably find some differing opinions, but in general players more than anything want to play on the MCG in front of a big crowd - of course they'd love it if the crowd was there purely for them, but they take what they can get at this early stage of the game's growth.

I'm with you that we want the AFL to do more to promote these internationals but at this stage I reckon the players would be pleased to be playing the EC final as a curtain raiser at the Oval as opposed to say retro-fitted polo fields or parklands... effort goes to make such fields as good as possible but it isn't quite the same.

I just don't think it's as simple as put it on and they will turn up, eventually. There are success stories but also plenty of tiny sports that have tried and failed. There's often luck and accidents of history on side, or a lot of hard work and money. We all want to see a lot of the latter from the AFL to support all the grassroots hard work, and hopefully we get some of the luck too.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Euro Continent vs Euro Isles as curtain-raiser to Bulldogs vs Port

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Sunday, August 19 2012 @ 09:41 pm ACST

Hi Guys.

I would like to relate a personal experience to explain why I think you are wrong about playing the EC Final as a curtain raiser from the players perspective.

Some time after the 1868 Mexico City Olympic Games, Tommie Smith and (I think John Carlos) and a few other world class athletes competed in Adelaide by invitation at Olympic Sports Field at Kensington, home of the SA Amateur Athletics Association.

IF you are not familiar with the Tommie Smith/Black Power story just google Mexico City Olympics Black Power

The athletic meeting was attended by a huge crowd by SA athletic competition standards for the time. (SA athletics standard in world athletics then probably akin to Europe footy standard in AFL now) The best of SA sprinters ran in that invitation race, and I would have done so in a flash if I had been good enough at the time. A few years later I twice made the SA State Final over 200metres (Putting me in the top 8 over 200metres in SA) and was probably damn close to running at the standard to have deserved an invitation (tho I probably wouldn't have got one as my club came from the wrong side of town :-) )

Our club did win the 4 x 100 metre relay SA State Championship and I do have a Gold Medal that has State Champion inscribed on it. My point is that I would have been very p----d off if SA AAA had run that invitation meet in conjunction with the State Championships just to get more spectators to the State Titles. As an athlete competing at that level (I was only running for my club and district) to have my fleeting moment of glory over shadowed by the Invitation Race would have had me and the rest of my team pondering whether it worth continue in the sport. (One member of our team did continue and placed 4th at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games over 200metres behind the likes of Don Quarrie and other West Indian stars).

The guys in the EC Final will be competing for their country and I don't believe they would be too impressed with their 'moment" of glory being overshadowed by an exhibition game even with the quality of the teams playing. It would be devalueing the EC FInal.

I did attend the invitation meet and Tommie Smith was awesome (the Usain Bolt of the era) and if my memory serves me correctly Brett, the prominent Adelaide lawyer who has just become Heather instead of David was one of the SA runners in that 200 metre invitation race.

Footnote: Tommie Smith and John Carlos both, I believe, attended the funeral of Peter Norman(the Aussie who split them for the Silver Medal) when he passed away not long ago. Shows how much respect for they had for him.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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